Thursday, February 2, 2023

Review: Ciemra's upcoming album "The Tread of Darkness"

Black Metal band from Belarus Ciemra, are releasing a new album called The Tread of Darkness through Avantgarde Music, on the 25th of February.
Ciemra formed relatively recently, around 2019, and this is their first full-length. Although I haven't heard anything by Ciemra before, The Tread of Darkness, is very much up my alley. I liked it from the first seconds of the first song, which has the same title as the album.
And the more familiar something is, the more difficult it is to describe it. So this review is quite a challenge.
So, The Tread of Darkness brings us proper black metal music, with a ton of melody, but not as melodic as what you'd call melodic black metal, if that makes sense. It is not raw either, but it is pretty cold, fast, full of anguished riffs and vocals. The vocals are just so angry and desperate, bringing a very strong atmosphere to the whole thing. Even the clean ones, although unexpected, so fitting.
There are some almost acoustic bits, making some bits sound almost like ballads, quickly shifting into the proper aggression you'd expect from this kind of music. All the songs are beautifully made and put together in an order that is perfect, leading you to listen to the album over and over again. 
It is heavy and speedy as it should be, but also has some groovy bits and solos that fit so well, and not many bands use. Some Northern European bands do, some of them come to mind while I listen to Ciemra. But that doesn't matter right now.
What matters is that I am astonished by their music, really. You can tell there is a lot of experience on the composing and performing, everything so perfectly executed, and this is one of the best albums of 2023 for Lachryma Christi already, for sure. 









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